WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday scrapped a long-planned Beijing trip aimed at easing escalating tensions between the two superpowers, after the Pentagon said that China sent a spy balloon over the United States.
Moments before the decision, China issued a late-night statement voicing regret over what it called an accident with a civilian airship but the United States was not impressed.
Blinken, who has faced intense pressure over the trip from the rival Republican Party, decided to postpone his two-day visit starting Sunday, which would have been the first by a top US diplomat since October 2018, a US official said.
The official said the…
Keep on reading: Blinken scraps rare Beijing trip over alleged China spy balloon
